Road Less Traveled. Students Who Enroll in Multiple Institutions. Postsecondary Education Descriptive Analysis Report

摘要

As of 2001, 40 percent of students who enrolled in postsecondary education for the first time in 1995-96 had attended more than one institution. Over the course of the undergraduate education of 1999-2000 college graduates (first-time bachelor's degree recipients), a majority (59 percent) had attended more than one institution. Even among 1999-2000 bachelor's degree recipients who began in 4-year institutions, about 47 percent had attended another institution at some point with or without transferring. Much of the research on students who attend multiple institutions has focused on those who make a permanent transition from one institution to another. For the most part, previous literature has not reported on the other ways in which students enroll in multiple institutions, including co-enrollment and attending another institution without transferring from the first institution. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the extent to which undergraduates attend multiple institutions as well as the relationship between multiple institution attendance and persistence, attainment, and time to degree. Students who attended multiple institutions are the population of interest here.